Academic Websites

News from the Honors Program

NWACC's Honors Seminar Students recently organized and offered an open forum for the Upward Bound Students. The forum took place in Burns Hall 2453-2473 on March 11 with more than 40 students and parents attending the stimulating discussion. The forum, titled "Building Blocks: Constructing Lives in a Diverse Northwest Arkansas," resulted in ideas for numerous Service Learning projects that future NWACC students can implement to meet community needs related to diversity.

Below are some highlights from that event.

The Honors Students make final preparations for the forum in the early afternoon of March 11. From left to right are: Ian Robertson, Inder Pal Singh, Amanda Culmer, Melanie Beal, Maria Pulido, Becky Hudson, Chris Cuchia, and Caleb Mosby.

Here Amanda Culmer leads the discussion on the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of living in Northwest Arkansas. She, along with the other honors students, was trained on February 7 by Dr. Virginia York of the Community College National Center for Civic Engagement to plan, organize, and offer a forum on immigration (see last photograph below) . The Upward Bound students really enjoyed the conversation and came up with some good ideas for NWACC student Service Learning projects.

Ian Robertson lead the discussion of the Economic Effects of Diversity and in the background Chris Cuchia and Valerie Learned serve as recorders, taking notes on the advantages and concerns of diversity and then also record the ideas for college student projects.

Here Caleb Mosby wraps up the forum by asking the Upward Bound students to assess their comments. It is clear by all the recorded comments on the wall that the students were really engaged in the discussion and were very interested in letting the NWACC's honors students know how they felt and what they believed could be done by future college students to meet community needs in diversity.

 

 

 

Dr. Virginia York, of the Community College National Center for Civic Engagement, trains the honors students on how to plan, prepare for, and offer a forum. She made it clear to Melanie Beal (in the foreground) and the other students that a forum is a discussion designed to solve problems, not a debate that results in a winner and a loser.

 

For questions/comments on this content, please contact honors@nwacc.edu.